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What if the Main Theory of Cancer is Wrong?
Most and perhaps all cancer is caused by environmental factors and modifiable behaviors, not the genes we inherit, researchers say
Cancer has long been viewed as a genetic disease, with heredity playing a big role in an individual’s risk. The prevailing idea is that the genes we’re stuck with can cause or allow normal cells to accumulate genetic mutations that make them grow unchecked into deadly tumors. The theory is simple and may sound logical. But it’s wrong, a growing number of scientists now say.
“Strictly speaking, genetics do not play a known role in human cancer,” says Carlos Sonnenschein, MD, a professor of integrative physiology and immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine. “Most, if not all, cancers are due to environmental factors.”
Those factors, Sonnenschein explained by email, include things we have some control over and things we don’t, from what we eat and drink to whether we smoke, where and how we live, how much physical activity we get, plus societal factors such as pollution and exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals found in pesticides, plastics and processed foods.
Sonnenschein and his colleagues — Tufts immunology professor Ana Soto, PhD, and lead author Sui Huang, MD, a…
